• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Marvel's The Defenders *SPOILER THREAD* |OT| Super Friends - August 18th on Netflix

Ughh so Alexandra was just a nobody made up for the show?
And Iron Fist still isn't able to channel his chi into both fists bothers the hell outta me.
Also, whatever happened to this guy?
sgwrdMY.jpg

I was expecting him to appear in the show.


I know. This drove me nuts!!
 

Oddduck

Member
Finished up the entire season. I didn't think it was a great show, but it was still fun to watch.

Here are my main criticisms.

I didn't think The Hand were compelling villains in Daredevil S2 and Iron Fist S1. And I didn't find them to be compelling villains in The Defenders either. Alexandra barely did anything for the entire show, and it felt like a big waste of Sigourney Weaver.

Also, the show failed to convince me that Elektra (The Black Sky) was ever much of a weapon/threat. Even Jessica Jones, who isn't a trained fighter like Daredevil and Iron Fist, was still able to put up a good fight against "The Black Sky".
 
Finished it. It was decent but...... how did they go from Dare Devil to this? Just re-watch some of DD S1 and it is still so good. Did they have way less budget and time to make these nowadays?

DD S1 >/= DDS2 Punisher = JJ > DDS2 Hand > LC 1st half = The Defenders > LC 2nd half > IF.

They need DeKnight and whoever was involved but since left in DDS1 back.
 

chogidogs

Member
Agree with most of the rankings. I liked it better than Iron Fist but, man. What a letdown.

Didn't feel like a worthy culmination at all. I wished they just made another better solo season for any of the heroes than just mash them up together and all of the sub characters in the most meaningless kind of way.
 
Only 5 episodes done and i find it boring. I enjoyed DD and JJ too. The Hand in this show is weak honestly. They havent shown anything really that makes them formidable. I think Kingpin and Kilgrave as a teamup against the defenders woyld of been a better scenario.
 

plainr_

Member
On episode 6 right now as the intro theme plays and I just want to stop by in this thread without reading anything and say that this fucker Danny Rand is trash and so undeserving of his power.

I hate that this shit revolves around him.
 

WarRock

Member
Last two episodes have so many plot holes/dumb shit from a plot perspective it's not even funny.

It's weird because the show is fun and good, a solid setup for more and surpassed my expectations, but at the same time... it isn't worth as the climax of four other shows at all. I feel like with minimal changes you could make this script work without any previous explanations.
 

Vic_Viper

Member
Ughh so Alexandra was just a nobody made up for the show?
And Iron Fist still isn't able to channel his chi into both fists bothers the hell outta me.
Also, whatever happened to this guy?
sgwrdMY.jpg

I was expecting him to appear in the show.

Hope Stone takes the place of Stick but has a cooler head. Or, I would like to see him take up the role of Gorgon (if Foxs owns him)

Now that more people have seen the show, who do you think will be the next overall villan that unites the 4 shows and leads to the eventual Defenders Season 2? It would have to be similar to the Hand has been so far, kind of like Thanos in the MCU movies.
 
Hope Stone takes the place of Stick but has a cooler head. Or, I would like to see him take up the role of Gorgon (if Foxs owns him)

Now that more people have seen the show, who do you think will be the next overall villan that unites the 4 shows and leads to the eventual Defenders Season 2? It would have to be similar to the Hand has been so far, kind of like Thanos in the MCU movies.

My guess will be the experiment organization that appeared in JJ and LC IIRC.
 
shut it off after 20 minutes, I gave iron fist 5 episodes and it didnt get better. Im not watching anything more than 20 minutes of the first episode now, if I dont feel like it is markedly improved.
 
I feel like pretty much all of Marvel TV is unravelling


Or being sabotaged or something. It seems like the bottom dropped out somewhere
 

citizentaxman

Neo Member
this is pretty bad outside of any daredevil/matt scenes. hell, i still don't get why the black sky is a big deal? is this ever explained, even if you ignore that this is in a universe where guys like the hulk and thor exist?
 

Boke1879

Member
I find it interesting enough and I'm enjoying myself.

To the people that say they feel all of this is unraveling? How so? Are their declining viewership or something?

I feel for what this "experiment" is. The shows are doing fine.
 

Billiam268

Neo Member
It was alright, but there is loads of stuff that just doesn't make sense that people have pointed out like what happened to kun lun and why all of NY would crumble without some bones being there.

The 3 on 3 fight between the hand and the defenders before they get to the elevator felt like it had a a different cut or camera angle every 0.3 seconds and that on top of the lighting made things hard to follow sometimes.

The rap music when all the defenders arrive in the cave was not a good fit either with the rest of the fights and so on having pretty good music imo it just wasn't what I was expecting, it would probably have fitted in more if it had been part of some huge badass moment.

I was sad to see DD die because DD is my fave marvel series on Netflix, and then I was disappointed when it showed he ridiculously survived, not looking forward to seeing them explain that one.

I feel like the defenders started off strong and ended weak with the black sky being under powered in comparison to what I was expecting and the cave reveal turning out to be dragon bones and not something spectacular and kun lun related
 
So does Elektra have super strength now? I don't understand how she's able to overpower Luke and Jessica. That African Hand member was also able to hurt Luke too. Do the Five Fingers have powers too? It's not really addressed, but it's bothering me.
 

Billiam268

Neo Member
So does Elektra have super strength now? I don't understand how she's able to overpower Luke and Jessica. That African Hand member was also able to hurt Luke too. Do the Five Fingers have powers too? It's not really addressed, but it's bothering me.

Pretty sure the only thing she gained by becoming the black sky is super strength it seems, and I assume all the members of the hand are the same, threw me off when I saw that Luke was getting hurt by the African warlord when Danny needed the iron fist to hit him, but then considering Gao is super strong too I assume they all are due to chi or whatever they learned in kun lun
 
Pretty sure the only thing she gained by becoming the black sky is super strength it seems, and I assume all the members of the hand are the same, threw me off when I saw that Luke was getting hurt by the African warlord when Danny needed the iron fist to hit him, but then considering Gao is super strong too I assume they all are due to chi or whatever they learned in kun lun

the continuity between the strength of the characters has been very bad
 

JCHandsom

Member
Pretty sure the only thing she gained by becoming the black sky is super strength it seems, and I assume all the members of the hand are the same, threw me off when I saw that Luke was getting hurt by the African warlord when Danny needed the iron fist to hit him, but then considering Gao is super strong too I assume they all are due to chi or whatever they learned in kun lun

I thought that was all pressure points stuff like Stick was talking about, "Slowing your heartbeat" and all that.
 

Waggles

Member
To the people that say they feel all of this is unraveling? How so? Are their declining viewership or something?

Every cliffhanger or tease from past seasons were practically thrown out or ignored/unexplained.

Defenders is boring, the story is plain bad, and the the entire netflix-verse as a whole is made worse once you reflect on it and realize that most of what they teased was just bullshit in the end.

Daredevil season 1 is still the only show worth viewing, if only for Vincent D'onofrio.
 
Remember when people criticised Agents of SHIELD as boring agents fighting superpowered foes? Netflix Marvel is Superheroes fighting boring ninjas which is even worse.
 

Metalmarc

Member
Just finished it it was just good, but not great

Maybe i hyped this up in my mind to be like the T.V version of the Avengers, but thats not what this was at all, although it could have been and better too if they wanted. Not a series i'd see myself wanting to rewatch, unlike DD Season 1 and the first four of DD season 2, so I hope Punisher is better.


Damn shame but Fox I feel are putting out the best right now, Marvel are just putting out the Just alright stuff, though i feel the better stuff is still to come in Movies from them, T.V is safe and average

Deadpool
Logan
Legion (yeah yeah i know it's a Fox/Marvel team but still)

(Hopefully fox have learned from FF & X-Men Apoc)
 

LordRaptor

Member
Every cliffhanger or tease from past seasons were practically thrown out or ignored/unexplained.

uhhhhh.... not really?
Ending of Luke Cage cliffhanger is resolved; he did his time and got freed.
Ending of DDS2 dangling plot threads are resolved;
What was that huge ass hole? What was at the bottom of it? What is Black Sky? All resolved.
It runs almost directly on from the ending of IF with him tracking the Hand - it takes him back to NY.

There are still obvious plot threads for each individual series to explore - JJ has the IGH that made her a supe being the obvious one there, DD being MIA and returning and veyr likely the return of Fisk to pick up all of the Hands operations, IF being more than just a weapon and Davos and whatserface meachum being out to get him, Cage being "harlem hero" and how that changes things... I can't actually remember what was left hanging from Cage because the end half of the season was so terribad.
 
Finished it last night, the overall feeling is, it was fine.

I was cool with the slow burn set up.
I liked the characters having their color tints in their individual scenes.
Actionwise the show probably peaked with that middle hallway fight of course.

Thought some of the camera work was a bit extra. They were trying WAY too hard with that revolving door shot.

Didn't watch Iron Fist, but yeah, Danny's super gruf, "I have to take on this burden alone" mindset was eye rolling, but he had a few moments. But yeah he takes himself way too seriously, that stupid speech when he walked into the board room. I like Colleen.

Wish they did more with the side characters (like having them talk more instead of sitting in a room staying with the people from their show).

Elektra was more likeable this time around, but because she was so unhinged in DD Season 2 it was hard to see why Matt was so crazy for her which made him really frustrating to watch as he made bad decisions for her sake. Also, all that Black Sky hype. That phrase still means nothing to me.

Surprisingly one of my biggest problems with this series was Matt. I mainly came into this for Matt Murdoch, but yeah he was kind of hard to like in this series. I liked where he started, not wanting to put on the suit and having to resist the urge, but dude does not play nice with others. He was on his season 2 bullshit for most of the runtime. Yeah, he pissed off all of his friends then also, but it was easy to feel for him because he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. This time I just felt like he was creating his own problems by not sharing with everyone and sort of being a dick about it. The final fight is him beating the shit out of his ex, them saying I love you, then going back to fighting and then making out and I had no idea how I was supposed to feel about that. Also, they criticized him everytime the team had a plan Matt just ran off to fight Elektra and then he goes and does the exact same thing in the finale once again. Also, he seems like he would be a pretty possessive boyfriend.

Character wise, Luke, Jessica and Claire carried this for me being the most rational and grounded. Though one dumb moment in Episode 1, Jessica definitely would NOT have taken that case if dude didn't call her so ... that was dumb on his part. Unless that was some brilliant reverse psychology shit.

Misty was less annoying and at least came off as a competent cop this time (but still not a very good one).

Alexandra was cool in parts.
I liked Sowande.

That fight at the end of episode 7 was NOT very good. Those cuts were awful.
The musical choice in the episode 8 fight was pretty jarring.
The blueprints are IN the piano. Ha!

Overall, it was a nice team up, I just wanted/expected more, wish they took another 6 months to develop this. There are some problems that need to be addressed as these shows continue.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
Matt: There are like a hundred guys armed with semi-automatic weapons waiting for us at the bottom once this elevator comes to a stop.

Luke: I've got an idea. (Looks at Jessica) But you're not going to like it.

Jessica: What's the idea?

Luke: Like, me and Matt will climb on top of this elevator...in such a way that we'll be rendered inexplicably invisible....so it'll seem like it was just you who came down here to meet them. Just to be clear, it'll be you who'll be putting yourself in harms way, and not me...the only bullet-proof member of this group...so you'll just sort of have to pray they don't choose to shoot you on sight. And then you'll sort of vaugely ramble on for a bit, and then me and Matt will jump off the elevator and be all like "RAAARGH!", and that way we'll sort of be taking the hundred dudes by surprise!

Jessica:. ...Luke, are you fucking high?
 
My brother and I were joking about how the lighting in each character's scene corresponds to the color of their superhero.

Matt's scenes are red, Jess' scenes are blue, Luke's yellow, and Danny's are green.

When Jessica is getting interviewed by Misty, it is in a blue room with blue lighting, but there is a red door. My brother saw the red door and said "LOOK! Red door, Matt is going to come in." And sure enough, Matt ends up entering through the red door and introducing himself to Jessica.

That scene is in the trailer, but he didn't watch it so it was hilarious.
 
Man did I expect nothing but the baseline and still get disappointed.

They killed off Ripley to retread Luke Cage S1, and it was worse this time because Elektra was just doing over her character arc towards the end of DD S2.

The bits between the titular Defenders seemed the best when they were just bouncing off each other, starting to get along and whatnot. The internal conflict was always conveniently timed to the proceedings.

None of the action worked for me except as quick cuts in the trailers.

Gonna miss Stick, but that's basically how he always expected to go out, I suppose, as a soldier in a shadowy war.

... HOLY SHIT I'm glad they didn't kill Claire, Misty, or Colleen.

By the way, we're done pretending that the Netflix stuff is connected to the MCU now, right? You're going to tell me a building goes down in the third act and not even Doctor Strange comes along to check out a supernatural domestic terrorist act? Oh but it had a dungeon underneath to conveniently catch the rubble and destruction so that's okay I guess?

.... Man, this show felt... to even call it wheel-spinning is overstating the matter because that implies the machine operates well enough to move forward.

All I know is, I'm basically done. I can't look forward to these shows anymore, especially with that Punisher teaser cribbing John Wick, felt like the Batman games of late emulating the Nolanverse films.
Bye Felicia
 

Fury451

Banned
Well I can only say this about it, eight episodes is definitely the ideal format going forward. Don't think much of the show so far but at least the pacing seems somewhat tighter than it would be otherwise.
 

Zalasta

Member
Only on episode 6 but boy, Danny is such a terrible character and Elektra is still trash. Really a shame that this season of Defenders was about two of the worst things that came out of the Marvel Netflix series.
 
Matt: There are like a hundred guys armed with semi-automatic weapons waiting for us at the bottom once this elevator comes to a stop.

Luke: I've got an idea. (Looks at Jessica) But you're not going to like it.

Jessica: What's the idea?

Luke: Like, me and Matt will climb on top of this elevator...in such a way that we'll be rendered inexplicably invisible....so it'll seem like it was just you who came down here to meet them. Just to be clear, it'll be you who'll be putting yourself in harms way, and not me...the only bullet-proof member of this group...so you'll just sort of have to pray they don't choose to shoot you on site. And then you'll sort of vaugely ramble on for a bit, and then me and Matt will jump off the elevator and be all like "RAAARGH!", and that way we'll sort of be taking the hundred dudes by surprise!

Jessica:. ...Luke, are you fucking high?

It would have been a much better scene if Luke was the one in the elevator and he walks out saying, "If you shoot me, you're going to regret it."
Then the hand unload their entire magazines on him, followed by Jess and Daredevil swooping in on them.
 
My only two real criticism of the show is that the combat was very poorly shot. There was one shot right at the end which was really good, but that should have been seen much sooner. DDS2 & 1 show how good the fight scenes can be, but since DDS2 they've really felt under par. like the directors don't know how to work around characters with abilities.

The second was that TV is a visual medium. STOP OVER EXPLAINING or TALKING. There is way too much dialogue and it makes the secondary character feel really stupid.
 
In the last scene with Luke Cage and Jessica Jones at the bar, he tells her that they need to "move forward."

The fact that he doesn't say "move forward, always" shows that the writers didn't really understand the characters.
 
I very much enjoyed myself with this one! Was great to see everyone interact (both main and supporting cast of the four shows) and most style differences between the various series worked out. Some great moments in everyone's storylines too.

This Iron Fist is truly an idiot though, which leads to plenty facepalming, but somewhere I also enjoy how it's actually a plot point, what with Stick quickly realizing exactly that and telling Matt that he would be a far better leader. It seems entirely intentional, but it's getting old. Danny Rand either needs to grow the F up in his next season, or they should kill him off and replace him with a better Fist.

Daredevil, Colleen Wing and Elektra remain my favourite characters. Jessica Jones' comments throughout the series had me in stitches. Loved the amount of fight scenes compared to the other series. Will probably watch it all again at some point.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
It would have been a much better scene if Luke was the one in the elevator and he walks out saying, "If you shoot me, you're going to regret it."
Then the hand unload their entire magazines on him, followed by Jess and Daredevil swooping in on them.

See, this is a plan that would actually have made at least a modicum of sense.

Maybe you should be leading The Defenders!
 

chaos789

Banned
Am I the only one bothered by the fact Danny Rand does not even wear a mask like his comics counterpart (forget the suit)? And why can he only use one fist? JJ and Matt are good as usual. Currently up too episode 4.
 

fallengorn

Bitches love smiley faces
Series is definitely a mixed bag. There's a few nice moments in the season, but writing is really uneven, some of the shots are just terrible. Especially in episode 7. It's just atrocious.

Danny is definitely better in this than in his own series, but the character took a nosedive at episode 6, just to serve the plot. Sigourney Weaver was wasted.

Because the Hand was the worst part of DD S2 and this doubled down on it. They clearly didn't have the budget to make them work.

I didn't mind the Hand plotline, but it definitely was a step down from the early Punisher stuff. I just wished the other shows (IF, Defenders) leaned in more with the ninjas. If we're dealing with the Hand give me ninjas up the wazoo, not generic looking bad guys.
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
Matt: There are like a hundred guys armed with semi-automatic weapons waiting for us at the bottom once this elevator comes to a stop.

Luke: I've got an idea. (Looks at Jessica) But you're not going to like it.

Jessica: What's the idea?

Luke: Like, me and Matt will climb on top of this elevator...in such a way that we'll be rendered inexplicably invisible....so it'll seem like it was just you who came down here to meet them. Just to be clear, it'll be you who'll be putting yourself in harms way, and not me...the only bullet-proof member of this group...so you'll just sort of have to pray they don't choose to shoot you on sight. And then you'll sort of vaugely ramble on for a bit, and then me and Matt will jump off the elevator and be all like "RAAARGH!", and that way we'll sort of be taking the hundred dudes by surprise!

Jessica:. ...Luke, are you fucking high?

That was amazing though. So comic booky
 
It was great up till episode 5 then it just went into a downward spiral.

Ending was just weird. Almost felt everything was going through in a haze. The villains were simply not compelling enough to force these guys together.

Iron Fist sucked. Such a horribly written character.

Elektra's variance in power levels throughout the season was fucking weird.

Just really disappointing overall, this had the potential to be really fun.
 

Dunlop

Member
Matt: There are like a hundred guys armed with semi-automatic weapons waiting for us at the bottom once this elevator comes to a stop.

Luke: I've got an idea. (Looks at Jessica) But you're not going to like it.

Jessica: What's the idea?

Luke: Like, me and Matt will climb on top of this elevator...in such a way that we'll be rendered inexplicably invisible....so it'll seem like it was just you who came down here to meet them. Just to be clear, it'll be you who'll be putting yourself in harms way, and not me...the only bullet-proof member of this group...so you'll just sort of have to pray they don't choose to shoot you on sight. And then you'll sort of vaugely ramble on for a bit, and then me and Matt will jump off the elevator and be all like "RAAARGH!", and that way we'll sort of be taking the hundred dudes by surprise!

Jessica:. ...Luke, are you fucking high?

lol I was thinking the same thing at that part

Also I meant to ask as I have never read the comics.

Does Dany introduce himself as "The Immortal Iron Fist" there?

So cringeworthy
 
Top Bottom